The day started off both early and late, depending on the person. Aang, Zuko, and Katara were up at dawn while Sokka and Toph slept in. Aang chose to meditate as Katara cooked up breakfast and fed Momo, and Zuko was hanging around Appa. That was as much as Aang could gather with his eyes closed, and he couldn't tell much more because his mind was supposed to be blank and focusing on nothing in particular.

Why had it gotten so difficult to meditate lately?

And on that note, why couldn't he reconnect with Avatar Roku? What was he doing wrong? He'd briefly considered that it had to do with putting off his decision about Ozai, but now that he had made it there wasn't much more to consider. He had even forced himself to no longer consider Katara as anything more than a friend, so what was it?

Nothing. You're supposed to have a blank mind. Keep it blank. Talking to yourself is not keeping it blank. His attempts continued, and he partially succeeded clearing his mind until the smell of breakfast wafted to him, and the sounds of Toph and Sokka waking up distracted him too much that he gave up and joined them by the fire.

Though he tried to keep still after he finished breakfast, he couldn't help bouncing on the balls of his feet for Sokka and Toph to go so his new firebending lesson would start. Toph called him out on it and jokingly asked if he was trying to kick them out of the group, but he was too excited to respond in any way but with happiness that left her frustrated and Sokka chuckling.

Finally, after finishing their food, Toph and Sokka left, allowing the lesson to begin. Katara remained off to the side with Appa and Momo while Zuko called out stances in a gruff tone. Gone was Nice Zuko from the day before, giving out compliments easily. In hindsight, it had been nice, even if most of the praise was unwarranted.

"Ostrich horse stance with Phoenix-Eye fist!" That one was simple enough, but Zuko wasn't making it easy to remember all the names for the various stances, attacks, and defenses. Aang went into the squatting stance and punched, aiming for a shadow enemy's solar plexus. Tapping his fist, Zuko corrected, "Raise it up more. Your opponents will be taller than you. Now, Bow-Arrow—and don't forget your leaning hand!"

"I was doing it!" Aang argued as he held his hand up to block an invisible attacker.

"Not fast enough. Triangle with hand sweep!" When Aang performed the appropriate movement, Zuko repeated, "Hand sweep—not Tigerdillo Claw!"

Aang threw his hands up. "A hand sweep isn't going to help me beat Ozai."

Instantly, he realized his mistake. Zuko seized the opportunity, saying, "Oh, so you want to beat him now?"

Aang looked over at Katara for help. She remained where she had been by Appa, though she was far from ignorant of what was happening. Eyes wide and alert, it looked like she would jump in the second things got out of control. However, things weren't out of control, so it was down to Aang to respond. Dodging, he replied, "I thought you were going to teach me firebending."

"I don't know; are you going to use it? After all, you might hurt someone." Stepping closer and lowering his voice so Katara couldn't hear, he asked, "Am I wasting my time teaching you?"

"No, of course not!" But Zuko looked skeptical. "I can help during the invasion; I don't need to kill anyone…and, you know, I'm still the Avatar; I need to learn it."

Zuko's face was unreadable, and he took a step back as if to appraise Aang. Is he seeing if I'm telling the truth? Or maybe if I'm worth it? he thought, his heart beating faster by the second.

Nodding once, Zuko said, "Yesterday, you created your own fire; today, you'll manipulate it. Go into Triangle Stance."

More stances? "Zuko…" he whined.

Zuko repeated his order: "Triangle Stance!" and Aang grudgingly complied. "Now, I'm going to attack you—"

"Attack me?!"

"—carefully," he continued, eyeing Aang. "The flame won't reach your chest, but it will get close so pay attention. I mean it, Aang. When you see it coming, move from neutral to Triangle Stance, then swipe your left hand over into a guard. Instead of blocking a kick, you're blocking the flames by shifting the energy away from you. This is a higher-level move because you have to sense my fire, not just your own."

" 'Higher-level'?" Aang felt his pulse spike. "Didn't we just start the basics?"

"You've seen the essentials of the basic set already—the stances and such. I've been persuaded to teach you in a more nontraditional method because of our time limit."

"Oh." He wasn't sure how he felt exactly. Happy, definitely—more firebending lessons were good—but there was a fair bit of nervousness mixed in. "And you'll not actually hit me?"

"No. Enough talking. Let's get to work."

What followed was probably the most tiring workout in his life. Fire wanted to get away from his control, and it took considerable attention to keep it steady. Consequently, he found the energy needed to not only create and direct fire seemed greater than with the other elements, but remembering to quench the fire when he was done with it was an added burden. How does Zuko firebend so easily? He voiced this question, and Zuko surprised him by smiling for the first time that day before ordering a new set of exercises.

After a seemingly endless period of time, Zuko called for a break. They went to Katara who supplied them with water. Neither one said anything as they panted heavily between gulps.

"You're looking good, Aang," Katara praised. "He almost got you once, but you deflected it out of the way. Just be aware where you're redirecting some of those hits. It didn't look like you were watching, and I don't want to be on the lookout for a stray fireball headed my way, okay?"

Aang nodded as he drank. He was too winded to do anything else.

"I wasn't watching either," Zuko admitted to her. "I'll make sure it's safe so you won't get burned."

"It'll be like old times if I do," she joked as she took back their empty cups.

Before Aang could do anything more than look at her—Why would she bring that up?—Zuko ordered him to work on his breathing techniques as he practiced stances, adding he'd be along in a minute; he needed to talk to Katara.

Aang walked a few paces away and went into the neutral stance, then Bow-Arrow, then Triangle, each change in stance joined by a hand movement—a punch, block, or some specialty move with a fancy name Zuko used—and a breath at the prescribed time. It was its own kind of meditation, and he could see why Zuko found it appealing to practice.

He paused and glanced over at them talking. About what? Nothing. Focus. The stances. Breathing. He registered her voice, but its contents remained indistinct. Aang turned his back on them and focused on each action, the movement of each limb, and the breathing in between.

As promised, Zuko returned not too much later, and they resumed training. Zuko was in a markedly better mood. He didn't order Aang around as much, though he continued correcting him over small details, but even then, his tone was not as unkind as it had been.

Katara had that power to make things better. She'd always had it. Aang was happy that Zuko was better, but one thought, one he couldn't bring himself to even acknowledge, nagged him: what had they talked about?

-o-0-

Zuko told Aang, "I'll be there in a minute." The boy hesitated, looking suspiciously at the two of them before walking off.

"So," Katara said, probing already but without much vigor—more of an invitation to speak.

"I, uh…" What could he say that hadn't already been said? But something, some inaccessible and unpronounceable reason urged him to tell her, "I'm sorry."

"It's okay. You've already ap—"

"I know. But…" He rubbed the back of his neck as he searched for words. "I—I don't want things to 'be like old times.' I don't want to ruin this."

"You aren't ruining anything, Zuko."

That wasn't true, but it was nice to hear she didn't think he was a lost cause. "I should have realized that it was my destiny to train the Avatar, not make decisions for him."

"There's nothing wrong with asking questions, and there's nothing wrong with disagreeing with him or any of us. It starts being wrong when you start saying untrue things."

"I know." I knew and I forgot. Or made myself think it didn't matter.

"I want to apologize for last night," Katara said. "I should never have yelled at you like that. I've never done that before, and it was wrong. I got scared and angry and I wasn't thinking. I'm sorry, Zuko."

He shrugged, remembering all the times he'd been beaten over the years. "I've dealt with worse. I'll be okay. I think you surprised me more than anything."

However, his assurance didn't seem to put her at ease. Katara blinked once and turned her gaze to the horizon as if searching for something, but she remained silent.

"I just want things to go back to normal. I want things to be good between us, okay?" There, he'd said it. The world could be in chaos—spirits, it was in chaos—but he needed to be okay with these four people, starting with Katara.

"Okay." It was a broken, small reply, full of emotion and pain.

He knit his brow together. "What did I say?"

She shook her head. "Nothing. I just can't change the past."

"It's okay." This still didn't seem to satisfy her. "Katara… Katara." She met his eyes. "You have done so much for me, for everyone here, and for the world. What have we said? We can only choose how to act from our mistakes. But remember this: you have saved my life twice. There is no way I would ever think you'd want to hurt me. Okay?"

She nodded.

"Good."

"You should get back to Aang," Katara said, looking over Zuko's shoulder.

"Are you sure? Because I can end training for today and make him do some exercises alone." Trying to lighten the mood, he added, "I am his sifu, you know."

She gave a small smile, recognizing the attempt. "I'm okay. We're good." Zuko took a step to leave, and she said, "You know, you're beginning to be a pretty good sifu, Zuko."

His heart fluttered. "Thanks," he managed to reply.

-o-0-

It was early afternoon when Sokka and Toph returned from shopping, bearing good and bad news. Sokka was eager to share his news but, as always, Toph announced the bad news, ignoring Aang's calls for the opposite: "The town's aware of a rogue Fire Nation ship. There's a lot of patrols—much more than in the Earth Kingdom. I don't know if that's normal for the Fire Nation, but a lot of people are stressed out." She shook herself. "Makes me want to take a nice, hot soak in a tub."

"And…?" Aang led. "The good news?"

"Yes, well—"

"My disguise works!" Sokka cried out proudly. "I was mistaken for a man—an older man, Toph!" he corrected when she began laughing. "Stop! I was mistaken for being older than I actually am!" The entire time he spoke, he felt his face turn several shades redder, but Aang and Katara joined in and there was no stopping them. At least Zuko remained—no, even he was smiling a little. Momo, you're my only friend!

After they quieted down some, he tried getting them back on topic: "Anyway, we got some supplies." He revealed an assortment of food items and a good piece of rope the shopkeeper threw in for free. There was nothing you couldn't do if you had a good piece of rope on you. Well, there's defeating Ozai, but that would not ruin the thrill of getting a bargain. "But in the future," he warned, "we shouldn't go into town anymore except when getting supplies."

"Did something happen while you were out?" Katara asked.

"No, why would you think that?"

Katara gave him a dubious look.

"Of course not," Toph answered. "As Sokka said, he's the master of disguise."

He rolled his eyes. You're not helping. "Stop. You're blind; you should be the one working on a disguise rather than a change of clothes."

"But I'm not the one everyone was noticing."

She was right but, "How would you know?"

"I can just tell."

"Fantastic answer. I should use that next time I don't have anything to back up what I'm saying."

"You mean," Katara butted in, a mischievous smile forming, "a 'gut feeling'? You've never went by that before."

Though he realized it was done in sport, he briefly considered mentioning Jet, but that was an iceberg he was unwilling to tip. "Why is everyone piling on? What did I do? Aang? Zuko? Mind helping me out here?"

Aang was having too much of a good time, and he smiled as he shook his head. Zuko was leaned against the side of the cave's opening, smiling still, but then said, "If you don't have anything more to report, maybe we can practice dao some more after Aang gives us a demonstration."

A demonstration?

"A demonstration?" Aang asked. "But I haven't prepared anything!"

"Let's see if Aang doesn't burn everything to the ground!" Toph cheered.

Sokka's arms were still sore from yesterday, but he'd take any training Zuko offered. Boomerang would always be his favorite, but he needed something more if he was going into battle. "Let's do it."

-o-0-

Sokka and the rest looked on as Aang followed Zuko's commands, stances and some—judging by the skills of the other firebenders he'd run across—simple attacks. It was progress, no doubt, but it felt closer to a performance than lessons to be used in battle.

Battle. That word was coming up more and more. It made his heart leap in both anticipation and apprehension. He didn't have any experience in battle. It was different than fighting in the moment. A battle was planned chaos; a prophecy foretelling unknown loss like a dark storm on the horizon. Fighting on his feet was one thing, but knowing, planning, readying himself for what was to come was, well, it was scary. I'm getting ready to kill people on purpose.

Sokka's attention was drawn back to Aang and Zuko when they faced off against each other. It was easy to tell Zuko wasn't attacking him at full strength, but he did enough to challenge and force him to use the different firebending techniques he'd learned. Zuko halted their training after he was seemingly satisfied with Aang's performance.

Aang went off with Katara toward the beach, Toph following and telling them how quick the fight would have been had he been allowed to earthbend, while Zuko and Sokka stayed back. Zuko was resting for a moment after his session with Aang, and Sokka practicing some of the moves Zuko showed him yesterday. A step and swing here—

"Smoother," Zuko called before he took another swig of water. "Don't chop." He demonstrated with his hand coming down swiftly like a knife then stopping short. "Swing through in an arc." This time, his hand cut through the air and swung far past where he had stopped.

Sure enough, when Sokka tried again, letting the blade keep its momentum a little longer, he felt the sword become just a little less awkward. Repeating the movement only increased this feeling.

"We're sure putting you to good use," Sokka said as he swung a third time, though not as well as the previous two. He frowned slightly and tried again with better results.

"I'm glad," Zuko replied as he watched. "Makes it seem like I can actually do something useful for once."

Sokka paused to glance at Zuko before continuing, "I know the feeling." He imagined an opponent attempting to block, and Sokka twisted the tip of the blade around to jab—

"It's too wide. Your circle. Here." Zuko set his drink down and walked over with both of his swords in hand. He had Sokka stick out his blade as the attacker, and then illustrated a tight semicircle using a smooth movement with his wrist and arm to get around the attack.

"You make it look easy."

Zuko silently accepted the praise, then said, "It takes a lot of time and work. You're progressing well considering you haven't been formally trained."

Letting the tip of his blade fall into the dirt, Sokka asked, "What are we doing right now?"

Zuko shrugged. "I mean…"

"I'm not calling you Sifu, but other than that, this seems pretty formal. It's not like we're learning during the invasion." His voice lost some of its humor at the word.

Zuko didn't catch on, replying, "True, but I'm talking about people whose sole purpose is to train others."

"I guess so, but I've only seen benders get teachers like that. Like Aang and Katara—and even Toph. Say, I never told you that her old teacher tried to kidnap her in Ba Sing Se." Seeing the odd look on Zuko's face, he added, "That's not how things are normally done, at least, I don't think so. The Earth Kingdom can be, well, you know…not great." Zuko gave a wry smile that didn't quite reach his eyes, and nodded once. Understatement of the century. Sokka cleared his throat. "So, uh, who taught you?"

"Firebending or dao?"

"Both."

Going into a stance Sokka was beginning to be familiar with and holding his swords with practiced ease, Zuko replied, "Well, with firebending, I had several teachers." He moved into another stance and the blades seemed to move on their own, swift as though knowing where to best cut through an opponent's defenses. "Azula has always been the most talented. She ran through tutors every few months and I got whoever she grew tired of."

Another flurry of blades. "Honestly, if she wasn't his daughter, I'd think the Fire Lord would have felt threatened by her abilities." After a moment, Zuko added darkly, "He should feel threatened by her." What is that supposed to mean? He didn't elaborate. With a grunt, Zuko twisted around and slashed across the belly of an invisible enemy.

The two swords lowered. "As for dao, I only had one master—the one I told you about. The Fire Lord thought it was beneath a bender to learn to fight with a sword, a nonbender's tool, but Uncle thought I'd like it and persuaded him to let me learn." He looked at something far off. "I remember he wasn't happy to be there in the Capital, and he refused anything offered to him as payment—"

"He did beat you up."

"Yes, at the beginning," he agreed, and then frowned. "I think he did that because I thought I knew better than him. Back then, I wouldn't listen to anyone I didn't want to." Sokka raised an eyebrow, and Zuko gave a faint grin in response, conceding the silent correction to the exact timing of "back then."

Continuing, he said, "He also taught me to be better than anyone else I've ever fought. I remember Uncle was impressed when I first showed him what I learned. The Fire Lord was less so. It's funny—" he started, as if remembering something, and not something humorous. He shook his head. "Nothing."

"What? Something embarrassing?" Sokka cracked a smile.

Zuko shot him a quick look. "No." The tip of one of his swords hit the dirt, and Zuko kept his eyes on it as he spoke: "I was told that they didn't know if I was going to be a firebender when I was little. I was just thinking that maybe that's why I took to dao faster than bending." He said it like it was something to be ashamed of, though, for the son of the Fire Lord, Sokka supposed it was.

"It's going to come in handy during Day of Black Sun," replied Sokka. "How many firebenders do you know will have another weapon with them? Once it starts, they'll be useless but you'll still be fighting. And, by the way, you're a pretty powerful bender compared to a lot of the guys we've gone against."

"True," he said vaguely, though looking a bit more confident. "Now," He lifted up his dual swords toward Sokka and continued, "Ready?"

Sokka smiled grimly and lifted his own dao. "Ready."

-o-0-

The fire crackled, its heat becoming too much for Toph, and she took her feet off where she had them propped up to the fire. She leaned her head back and groaned softly. Conversations were friendly but sparse now that everyone had eaten.

"What's the plan for tomorrow?" Sokka prompted the group.

Aang shrugged. "More training, I guess."

"You can train with me in the morning and then Toph in the afternoon," Katara said in a way that wasn't much of a suggestion.

"But what about my training with Zuko?"

"You didn't train with me or Toph today; you still need to keep up with all the elements."

"But—"

"She's right, Aang," Zuko said. "You need to be balanced in your training—isn't that what you always say?"

"Yeah, I guess…" he mumbled his reply.

"Should we start thinking about changing locations?" asked Sokka. "We need to keep moving."

"They're looking for a boat, not us," said Toph, not bothering to hide the annoyance in her voice. "Do we really need to abandon perfectly good, solid ground so quickly?"

"They're looking for anything suspicious," Sokka replied. Speaking to everyone, he said, "When Toph and I were in town, soldiers were giving everyone trouble, even the shopkeepers. Luckily, we were able to avoid them, but I don't know if they were planning on staying in town or patrolling out here. Either way, I'd rather not risk getting found out."

"I don't think it's likely they'll go this far outside of town," said Katara, "but, I agree that we should keep moving."

Aang spoke up: "I think this is a really good hiding spot, though. Better than a lot of our others. The cave is really nice."

"I've never heard anyone describe a cave as 'nice' before," Sokka joked. "What do you think, Zuko?"

"The cave does offer shelter and hides most of the noise and elements we're training with. I think it's worth staying here longer, if we can," Zuko concluded.

But that did not seem to satisfy Sokka. Like his sister, his suggestion was not exactly that. He shook his head. "I still think we shouldn't stay here that long. Those soldiers didn't make you nervous, Toph?"

Everyone (presumably) looked at her. Sure, she'd sensed the soldiers roughing up some of the townspeople. That wasn't too out-of-place, given that they were in the Fire Nation but, yes, it was likely they wouldn't be able to avoid them again. And despite what she'd said earlier, maybe Sokka's disguise was good, but she knew for sure he was a terrible liar.

She shrugged.

"I'll take that as a yes," Sokka translated.

Aang rubbed his eyes. "Do we have to make the decision tonight?"

"Yeah, it's kind of late, Sokka," agreed Katara. "Why don't we train all day tomorrow, not go into town, and then leave the next morning?"

Between the topic of conversation, the food in her belly, and the warm fire, Toph felt her own pulse begin to slow, and she stood, waving her hand toward Katara. "Yeah. That." Then she proceeded to recreate her earthen tent from the night before and crawl in.

The last thing she felt before falling asleep was the soothing rumble of Appa's breathing from alongside her tent that drowned out the irregular noises coming from the others.